Badge in Azure

Saleen touched the ring. The structure of the ring was identical to the Ring of Gifts. What was different was that there was nothing Saleen was able to do to open the space within. He even splashed the ring with a drop of power of faith, and the ring did not react in any way. The drop of power of faith simply slid off the ring and landed on the floor.

The blot of power of faith tried to enter the flooring of the Magical Element Tower, yet the elementite of the tower had been refined by Gaine to level 18, making it the sturdiest material in the entire series of crystal walls. The drop of power of faith rolled around, unable to get in.

Saleen retrieved the drop of power of faith with the Ring of Gifts. While he never use any divine spells anymore, power of faith itself was a type of very pure energy, which could also be converted to the power required by mages. That was proven by the grandmaster and the others looking desperately for things related to the gods.

Mages wanted to get their hands on things like that at the very end of their training. What separated mages from gods was that mages would not go about increasing their number of adherents, while gods would suffer a sharp drop in power and lifespan if they were away from their adherents.

The Winged Skull had gotten used to the existence of the two souls within his eyes by then. Saleen put away the Magical Element Tower and cast Quickcloud, flying to Daliang City with the Winged Skull.

When Saleen used his badge to dispose of three powerful beings, within the Nico Cathedral in Holy City, located at Glorious Plains of the Tanggulasi Empire, several hundred red-robed holy masters gathered around an old altar, praying without pause. Three men stood at the altar: Pope Theisio, the second oracle and the second head inquisitor from the Tribunal.

A glittering piece of equipment was hanging above the altar, a huge halo with a diameter of over ten meters. The halo was probably a gem like the Ice Island Rock. The light shooting out from the giant ring-shaped equipment showered the entire cathedral.

Every holy mater wore an expression joy and tranquillity on their faces.

The light from the gods plane emanated from the halo. All three figures standing at the altar harbored different thoughts.

Pope Theisio had silver hair, and his face was severely wrinkled. The price he paid for casting the greater prophecy spell was that his lifespan was reduced to being near its end. However, if the spell succeeded, he would regain his youth as well as the blessing of his god. Any price was deemed worth it, since if he had not worked for it while he was still able to, he would have died many years later as a forgotten pope.

Theisio had not been able to achieve and contribute much throughout his life. The relations between him and the Tribunal had simply bettered, instead of him being able to take the lead and give the head inquisitors orders.

If he were to end his life uneventfully and missed one such chance, Theisio wondered if he would have regretted it when he entered heaven. Worse still, he could have fallen, barring his passage into heaven.

Beyond the heaven lay the kingdom of the gods. Theisio’s ambition had inflated alongside the rise of power of the plane. The last time the power of the plane had loosened, the godly items reacted. As such, he gathered the people of the Tribunal and the oracle to perform a greater prophecy spell, hoping to call upon a true oracle with the loosening of powers of the plane.

It would have been even better if they were able to call a double of their god, as the army of the Holy See would have been truly blessed, enabling their combat capacity to spike, bringing them many steps closer to reigning supreme throughout the mainland.

Furthermore, an oracle descending from the realm of gods was many times more powerful than the ones nurtured on Myers Mainland. The Holy City would have became a truly impregnable city, and they no longer had to fear that lunatic from the Kingdom of Metatrin.

Saleen’s action of destroying Ironwall City had indeed shocked the Holy See to their knees. The Holy See had indeed ordered their forces to not get close to Daliang City, for no other reason than fearing that Saleen would have assaulted another important city of theirs. The Holy See had even recalled most of their forces and relocated them to Holy City, going so far to even considering abandoning other important cities.

The Tribunal had instead taken a cautious approach. The pope was the highest authority in all of the Holy See. If he were to fail to call upon an oracle, the pope would gain nothing from all the effort put into the act, which meant that the Holy See would have to elect a new pope within a year at most.

That would, in turn, affect the sacred war. What the Tribunal did not want to see even more was the advent of the oracle boosting the pope’s power significantly, as that would mean the status of the Tribunal being diminished.

The seven oracles did not have such concerns, because with the first oracle, Fycro, having disappeared for so long, an oracle summoned from heaven would replenish their powers.

It was said that in all of the planes where the Lord of Glory was present, the oracles were the greatest force to be had in battle. If Fycro was still there with the Holy See, it would be the same with Myers Mainland. However, no one knew where Fycro was.

The remaining six developed their own agendas. All of them wished to be blessed by their god, enabling them to take over Fycro’s place.

Calling upon an oracle was a long, arduous process. The adherents on Myers Mainland had not been going through something like that for a very long time. While there had been the Goddess of Nature back then, the goddess herself was a god of Myers Mainland itself, and as such, there was no need to call upon her.

The adherents of the Lord of Glory were all praying below, feeling extremely excited.

Pope Theisio was just as excited. He felt in that moment that the power in his body rose maniacally. It was the loosening of the power of the plane, and a sign that there were someone breaking through the limit of level 13.

When Saleen’s lightning struck, the two oracles of the Goddess of Nature and the Dark Sky Devil brought formidable power at the same time, overcoming the limit of level 12 and breaking into level 13. At the same time, the ten-meter halo above the altar at Holy City had three silhouettes passing through, landing before Theisio.

“Pope, God has heard your prayers. You did well,” Three oracles with a stature over three meters tall smiled.

The three oracles were not angels and had no wings, but the power contained within them was just as pure.

Theisio was in tears. Did God really hear my voice?

When the oracles came, nine level nine sorcerers of the Elemental Hand within the core magic tower of Alchemy City burst with powerful elemental vibrations at the same time. All magic towers in the city resonated with it, supplying the core tower with massive amounts of elemental power.

All nine level nine sorcerers advanced at the same time. All mages within Alchemy City were able to feel the terrifying scene. The sky darkened, water element froze in the wind, taking form as thick, massive clouds, bearing on the city.

The mages of the Elemental Hand yelled in joy. They had slept not well for many nights waiting for that moment. When the last time the loosening of the plane’s power was calculated, everyone waited for the moment to happen again. It was a time when mages were able to advance easily. All mages above level six in the Elemental Hand had participated in the action to advance further.

Everyone seized the very moment of explosion of elements that happened earlier.

Everyone was able to comprehend the power that showered on them out of nowhere, enabling them to absorb different kinds of knowledge. Everyone had much to gain, and the ones who gained most were the nine leaders of the Elemental Hand. All level nine sorcerers advanced. From then on out, there would be no one in Alchemy City capable of squaring off against the Elemental Hand.

The reign of the Elemental Hand was able to continue. They had grown to be able to affect things throughout the entire mainland.

Things like that happened throughout all corners of Myers Mainland. The last loosening of power caught the attention of all the top notch powerful ones. They had all been waiting, including some mages in Metatrin City.

Saleen was the only one left in the dark as he brought the Winged Skull flying towards Daliang City.

The city gates remained shut. The number of magic towers within the city increased to 12. With several death mages advancing, three death magic towers were added.

The de facto leader of Daliang City was Sorcerer Stephanie. Her advancement to level nine had put the people of Daliang City at ease. The number of the city’s army dwindled with many deployed to Sanlian City. If Daliang City were attacked, Sanlian City would be attacked at the same time.

There were only 50,000 elite troops and over 200,000 auxiliary troops left within the city.

The Dragon-slaughtering Mercenary Group that Saleen hired was still in the city, becoming the main force of the palace, left in charge of Lex’s palace defense. Saleen went straight to Stephanie’s tower as he passed by, not doing anything to rouse the others.

Saleen was a level nine sorcerer, which meant that he was Stephanie’s equal. She opened up her tower and let Saleen in.

“You advanced rather quickly.” Stephanie smiled, but her eyes were on the Winged Skull behind him. She deemed Saleen’s follower to be somewhat stronger than Saleen, but was nonetheless suppressed at level nine.

The Winged Skull paid no heed to Stephanie’s attention on them. The silver soul flames in their eyes began to dance, blocking the human-like eyes behind. The Winged Skull had learnt to disguise themselves before strangers without needing Saleen’s instructions.

Stephanie had received Lex’s letter and knew why Saleen had come.

Saleen said, “what would you do if Golden Plains sent someone over?”

If the Grukos sent many powerful ones and Stephanie was unable to keep things in check, she would feel uncomfortable to stay behind.

“I’d return to Principality of Bitterwater. That is Lex’s true home,” Stephanie answered. She did not seem to be angered over the matter in one bit.

Saleen did not see anything pretentious with Stephanie and felt somewhat relieved. He then said, “if you’re willing, I can take you to Metatrin City. It is more suitable for training.”

“There is no need for that. I took the late Emperor Chanake’s final orders after all…” Stephanie appeared rather sad. She did not like hiding her feelings.

“I understand.” Saleen knew there was no way he would have been able to get someone so powerful to serve him. Nonetheless, he took out six level 12 magic nuclei and put them before Stephanie, saying, “this is from Lex.”

Stephanie had initially intended to refuse, but she smiled after seeing the level of magic nuclei offered and put them away. “Thank you. You don’t actually have to do this. Per the late emperor’s wish, I would never leave Lex.”

Someone pushed the door open rudely from outside before Stephanie was able to finish talking.

“Master! Eh? Saleen, why are you here?”

Saleen did not even need to turn his head around to know who barged in. What surprised him right there was finding Hogina there. I came that close to killing her teacher and we’re enemies now. Didn’t Hogina know that?